The present invention relates to a portable information processing apparatus and associated method, program, and recording medium for controlling the information processing apparatus and, in particular, to an information processing apparatus that has a protection function for a magnetic disk device and a power-saving function, and a method, program, and recording medium for controlling the information processing apparatus.
See Published Unexamined Patent Application No. 7-57376 for disclosure of a technology that detects the height and attitude of a magnetic head from the surface of a magnetic disk in a magnetic disk device by comparing an actual reproduction signal with a reference reproduction signal and, if an abnormal height or attitude is found, notifies a user that a head crash or sliding is likely to occur.
A portable PC (personal computer) such as a notebook PC and a tablet PC is provided with a power-saving state such as suspend or hibernation mode for saving electric power of its built-in battery, in addition to a power state for normal operation of the information processing apparatus. In order to place the apparatus in such a power-saving state, an appropriate program is activated and performs the switching operation. Because the program is used only when switching the apparatus to a power-saving state and not in normal operation, the program is typically saved in a page memory file managed by a virtual memory management service. That is, many of memory areas that are found to be less frequently used from an execution history are temporarily saved in a page memory file to provide free real physical memory areas, thereby increasing apparent memory size. In many cases where a less frequently used executable program is to be executed, the execution code saved in the page memory file is retrieved, loaded in a physical memory, and then executed. In other words, placing the apparatus in a power-saving state entails data read/write operations (hereinafter referred to as “disk access” as appropriate) on a magnetic disk device.
Japanese Patent Application No. 2003-306161 (filed on Aug. 29, 2003 and not published as of the date of filing the present application) discloses an approach in which an impact to a magnetic disk device is predicted from an output from an acceleration sensor provided in an information processing apparatus and the magnetic disk device is placed in a shock-resistant state based on the prediction. In particular, in the shock-resistant state, a head is moved to a position in which the head does not face the surface of a magnetic disk. However, it is difficult to access the disk in such a state.
A user of a PC having the function of switching to a power-saving state and a protection function for protecting its magnetic disk device against a possible impact to the PC may shut the lid, which is a liquid-crystal-display panel, of the notebook PC and moves to another place with the PC. In such a case, the user stands up from a chair and lifts the PC from the desk, and therefore a strong shake of the PC is detected. The hard disk protection function of the magnetic disk device may regard the shake as a sign that the PC is about to fall and places the magnetic disk device in a shock-resistant state, in which the disk is inaccessible, ahead of time. Then, the user walks to the place with the PC, and accordingly, the PC is continuously shaken. If the user's travel time is long, the magnetic disk device is prevented from returning to an accessible state for a long time. As a result, the magnetic disk device is suspended from entering a power-saving state for a long period of time and consequently the battery life is reduced. If the battery of the magnetic disk device is nearly exhausted and the device is suspended from entering the power-saving state for a long time, data may be lost due to battery shutoff.
An object of the present invention is to provide an information processing apparatus and an information processing apparatus control method, program, and recording medium that prevent a protection function of a magnetic disk device for proactively reacting to a possible impact from hindering the progress of predetermined process.